Leclerc sees areas for improvement at Ferrari: 'Red Bull looks very strong'

Charles Leclerc was the fastest man in the morning session of the final test day in Bahrain, but the Ferrari driver insists that Red Bull Racing remains the team to beat. He therefore believes his own team still has work to do ahead of the opening race of the new Formula 1 season.

The winter test went trouble-free for Ferrari, but Leclerc is concerned that Red Bull still has an edge at the moment. "I feel we've got some work to do," he is quoted as saying by Reuters. "Red Bull seems to be very strong in these three days."

At the unveiling of the SF-23, Ferrari stated that the new car has been almost completely redesigned. Leclerc confirmed that there are big differences from last year's F1-75 and acknowledged that he had to get used to it. "I've been trying a lot of different driving styles. I seem to have found my way a little bit this morning, finally," he notes.

Changes at Ferrari

In the 2022 F1 season, Ferrari mostly lost out to Red Bull in races. Especially on the straights, the Italian racing stable had to concede, while the car was strong in the corners. That has been worked on: "I expect us to be a bit quicker in the straights, maybe struggling a little bit more in the corners," Leclerc continued.

Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari still has some work to do in finding the right set-up. "We are still working quite a bit on trying to find the sweet spot of the car in terms of setup so I hope there's some margin on that still, that we haven't found the sweet spot yet," Leclerc said.